I'm about to install a sub and amp in the boot of my TE and was just wondering where the best place is in the firewall to pass the battery wire through. I got a wiring kit with the amp and the wire is pretty heavy gague (it's about 5mm thick) so are there any grommets that I can pass this through? The car has A/C so a lot of the holes are in use already.

Thanks for your help guys.

Just feed your cables through a existing hole :)

Yes, but which hole? I had a quick look and there's not many to choose from, or am I not looking in the right spots? Appreciate the help.

use the one where your aircon runds throught the firewall.. there should be some piping leading into the cabin,

est, slightly to the passengers side, centre of the cabin, about 3inch deep from the top of the body, just unplug the thinggi, and run your wires, then seal it up again.

its quite easy, and you can use what ever hole you can find.

GBM

Don't know if it's the same grommet GBM was talking about, but in my old magna I used the one sorta near the centre console... (looking from in the cabin)

Look from the driver's side foot well and you'll see a rectangular grey-ish box, sorta like a CD-ROM drive with a heap of connections coming out of it.. No idea what it is (ECU??) but right near it there's a thick loom running out from it to the grommet.. Get a scalpel/blade/something sharp/drill (careful with the drill as there's not much room..) and cut through slightly to the right of the loom.. if you do it right, you can keep most of the surrounding rubber and not have to do much in terms of sealing it back up again...

from the engine bay looking towards the back of the car, you'll see the steering linkage so the left of it, sorta down the bottom of the firewall... I couldn't reach far enough down, so I just fed it through from the cabin until enough came through..

If you push the grommet through the firewall, no big deal, just make sure you use something to substitute it as your cabling will rub up against the raw edge of metal and eventually develop problems (If it's not fused you run the real risk having an engine bay on fire....)

On the other hand, even if you don't put your cabling through or the hole you made was too large, seal it up as water can get inside the cabin... Had a friend that had a pool of water in the foot wells (redefines wells...) every time it rained.. Heard of some people using stuff like selly's all clear and that sort of stuff... Don't know how effective it is, but I'd imagine it'd work fairly well..

Sorry for ranting on a bit... Don't let this put you off, it really is extremely easy... I sat around for about a month worried to cut through anything, and when i thought, "screw it..." it took me 5 minutes...

Just re-read your post... Getting cabling into the boot is something I have absolutely no idea about... I think it was Blake, though, that found an existing hole (there's only one!) to run the cables through... I don't know the full story on it or whether it's true or not, but if it is, I think you'd probably get noise in your audio system since all cables would have to run through that one hole (i.e. won't be able to run your RCAs and power looms on opposite sides of the car...) No idea... I can't remember who did what to who's car now... lol..

you might be better off installing the amp under a seat, but if you're planning on creating a nice boot display I don't think you've got very many other options other than to drill out.. (*shudder*) just my opinion...

Sorry for the long post.. hope it helps out...

hey man,

yeah - the grommets in the firewall are the hard part!!

but getting the wire into the boot is easy!!

just pull out th eback seat and fold the carpets back from the edge of the doors - there is cable tunnelling the whole length and both sides of the car!! when you pull the back seats out you can see there are lotsa places to run cables through - and you dont have to run them the same side of the car!! put the power cable one side and the RCA's the other side!! other wise you could end up with alternator noise - very irritating!!

have fun - excellent project subs!! i am yet to put some in my maga!! havent had the joy of playing with that sorta stuff since my old car!!!

Manual

Manual - I wouldn't call it joy. When i was doing mine it was a royal nightmare.

Blake - "ok everything's hooked up properly.... check, and double check, time to crank this baby up" .... "hrmmm, the headunit isn't powering up, hrrrmmmm one one amp is powered up...."

#^$Q@#@#%T#$%^@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $#%@#$!!!!!!!!!!!

blake - shhhh!!! we are meant to instill confidence in these ppl - ok - there may be a few hickups - then they post here and we help !! all in all it is fairly simple!!

but the real joy comes from hearing it after the speakers have been worked in!! excellent!!

DO NOT CRANK YOUR SYSTEM WITH NEW SPEAKERS!!!!

They require at least 10 hours of use to loosen up so that they are cruisy - if u crank them right away then u will warp them!!! be gentle with them - they are like engines!! u r not meant to go to redline in a brand new car!! it is bad for it!! and not meant to travel over 100km's hour for the first 5000 k's!!! this is not good for it - treat it right and they will treat u right!!

Manual

Someone brought that to my attention after 10 hours of use. Id had them cranked to the max when i first put them in...

Oh well they still sound great!

yeah - well i am sure they are - but it is just something i was told and something i have stood buy - and the theory behind it is sound so i am happy to keep it easy on my speakers!!

and i dont crank them now - they go loud but they arent amped so they get under powered giving bad distortion!! so i be easy on them!!

Manual

Thanks guys. I'm halfway through a degree in Audio Engineering so I can back up Manual on the whole running your speakers in, especially if you're gonna be pumping them because at high power they get warm and they need to get used to that warmth to operate without damage, just like my best pair of thongs (cause there are many pairs) are the oldest and most worn in.

Getting wires to the boot is pretty easy, I pulled out the backseat and it shouldn't be too hard. I wouldn't mind mounting the amp under the seat but it's got a pretty blue light on it that I want to be able to see every now and then (pretty shallow, huh?). So it's gonna be mounted onto the metal plate behind the back seat (insulated of course with rubber washers, which will also reduce the vibrations - hang on stupid, it's gonna be mounted next to a 12" sub???!!!! Forget the vibrations thing).

I've installed two CB radios and several pairs of spotlights and other various driving lights into various 4WDs with my Pa over the years so sticking things through the firewall has never phased us. However he had a look at it the other day and said there weren't two many options and we might have to drill (!!!!) so I thought I'd ask you guys, and you have been more than helpful.

Hehe - "redefined wells" LOL

i had the same problem....but there is a hole where like 15 wires are togetehr and they go through like a lil rubber insert.....squeeze them through that!!!!! then just feed the wire in and in and eventually the wire will pop up from under your glub-box........took my 2 hours to find a hole...so just keep searching..

Of all the cars i have owned later model magna's are the hardest to get things through the firewall... silly sound deadending blocks everything.

I've reached the stage where nearly all firehole opening are full from all my accessories, under car neons, neon whiper jets, lumiscent pedals, radar detector, sound system, amp wiring etc etc. Hopefully my in car neons will be the last thing i need to feed through. Maybe i should get one of those nice gold battery terminals as mine looks very dodgey will all these wires trying to find a spot on the positive terminal...

Sounds like the cable to the boot is easy... I'll take a look one of these days =)

Blake: Consider running some 2ga or 0ga cabling from your battery direct through the firewall and to a distribution block... It'd be a heap easier than running a seperate line every time you want to add another interior mod... Go for a fused one if you can to help out with fusing specific applications, then fuse the main cable from the battery to the dist. block close to the battery itself...

You'd open your bonnet and there would be your one terminal with a big fat line snaking through to the firewall for everything you need to power... Only problem might be finding a hole for that one cable, but once you've got that covered, you won't have to go through the firewall ever again..

Battery terminal probably will set you back $30, Fused Dist. Block also about $30, fuses are about $1.95 from JayCar if you buy 4 or more, Inline fuse holder for main battery line probably about $10-$15... Probably all up $80 not including cabling costs..

You know thats a brilliant idea. Would look good with another 4 gauge rad cable and its own fuse. Neato i will do that soon!

Firstly, I just want to thank everyone for their help. The sub is now in, in fact the hardest part was mounting the amp. It appears that the guys who installed the alarm drilled a hole by mistake in the wrong place and sealed it with All Clear or something, I soon realised that the hole was the perfect size for the amp battery cable and it was next to the clutch pedal! Perfect!

I'm now in the process of trialling different positions for the sub, so far I am more impressed with it facing the boot instead of it coming through the ski-hole, but it does look awesome when you can see it, I just wish I'd got one of those subs with the blue light in it that glows with the beat, how cool would that look!

Glad to hear you got it sorted.